Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 44

The Magical History of Shanghai
Victoria Shanghai Academy, Lam, Darren – 9
A
long time ago in ancient China, there lived a small group of powerful witches and wizards. They were
hugely outnumbered by the non-magical people and lived in fear of being exposed. The Emperor of China
ruled with an iron fist. His Prime Minister was a wizard, which made the Emperor very jealous. The people of
the land barely had enough space to live, which made them fight and to make things worse they hardly had enough
food to eat. He asked his Prime Minister for ideas to stop the conflict, but every idea involved magic, which he
hated.
One day, the group of learned witches and wizards headed to the Emperor’s palace. They suggested they build
their own invisible city for their magical people to live in so that there would be more space for the Emperor and
his people. ‘’FORGET IT! HOW DARE YOU EVEN THINK OF USING MAGIC? WHAT IS WRONG
WITH MY LAND? IS IT NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?’’ the Emperor yelled. The Emperor was
convinced that this idea came from his Prime Minister. He was a raging ball of fire and threw the entire magical
population into jail.
Ten years later, the Emperor was still facing a crisis. The people were still starving. They still had no place to live
and the Emperor was still not satisfied with how his country was turning out. He decided to bring his Prime
Minister out of jail and asked him for advice. ‘’I’m facing more crisis and conflict. I need ideas on how to resolve
this problem once and for all.’’
‘’Let me go back to my people and gather ideas,’’ the Prime Minister suggested. Two weeks later, the Prime
Minister returned with an idea for the Emperor. ‘’We have come up with a solution. However, you may not like it
because it involves magic.’’ the Emperor stroked his beard.
‘’Well, sinc